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bilditup1

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20-Feb-2005
Last activity
10-May-2023
Posts
483

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Post
#1118191
Topic
Info: Star Wars - Live Scores at The New York Philharmonic
Time

Hey all,

As you guys probably know, this past month, Star Wars, ESB, ROTJ, and TFA were screened with a live performance of John Williams’ scores by the New York Philharmonic at David Geffen Hall, under composer/conductor David Newman. I was fortunate enough to attend Star Wars and ESB and make crude recordings of both with RecForge II on my phone. Unfortunately I didn’t plan any of this out, or I would have tried to smuggle in at least my Tascam recorder, or at least have the presence of mind to change my usual recording settings either time (so we’re limited to a mono, 16-bit/44.1kHz PCM recording, which for Star Wars especially is pretty hot since I forgot to take levels). I was also sitting all the way in the back (last row of Third Tier) for Star Wars, and almost all the way (middle of Second Tier) for Empire, so it probably isn’t ideal acoustically. Still, IMHO, they are very listenable as is, warts and all.

Some thoughts:
Newman was obviously limited by the fact that he had to keep the score in sync to the films but did nonetheless get to play with tempo, dynamics, and instrumentation a bit. When the score as heard in the film differed from that on the released OSTs, he always chose the film version of the orchestration (though that probably also differs a bit from the final film cut). The roughness of ESB overall is a testament to how much that film must have changed after having been scored, and the utter freaking jarring obnoxiousness of the 2011 additions (particularly in ESB) were only accentuated by the orchestra’s presence. Star Wars sounded a lot more complete and coherent, even with the digressions introduced around Mos Eisley. (Speaking of - Fiery Figrin Da’an and his Modal Nodes were not represented by the NYPhil, in case anyone was ondering.)
Nonetheless it was a pretty wild experience both times (esp ESB, which was on my birthday) and I wish I could have attended ROTJ and TFA as well. One thing I didn’t anticipate - probably because this was the first time I’ve seen either Star Wars or ESB in theaters - for example, was that er, this is a screening of Star Wars in a very large public space in a very large city, so most of the attendees, while obviously John Williams fans, were uh also very much Star Wars fans first - the 501st were out in force, there were a few cosplayers in the crowd, etc. Thus this wasn’t exactly a stuffy performance where you’d be liable to get shushed - which while better from a perspective of getting a definitive recording of Newman’s version, or ya know, for just hearing everything, also makes for a pretty engaging experience of its own. So while I was pretty annoyed at first, especially at some of the kids (they were eventually brought in line, lolz), eventually I embraced it (though I generally did not react with them, and good for that eh): jokes that I thought were banal or dumb or gah-it-was-cool-a-thousand-watches-ago-but-definitely-not-anymore came right back to life. Sometimes the cheers were for the characters, sometimes for the music, and sometimes both. All in all, pretty amazing.

Anyway, I don’t really have audio editing chops beyond doing simple cuts and amplifies in Audacity. No Izotope, Audition, etc. So initially I was just going to try to cut these up into something approximating e.g. ABC’s IAE V2 (organized by cue) and see what I can do with this crude thing, make it a learning experience etc. But I was hunting through the spleen recently and it looks like someone, after all these years, finally took the time to sync Scofield (hurray!) as well a hitherto unknown recording of ESB on opening night, so I thought there might be some interest in trying to sync this, warts and all, even just to the 2011 BDs. I’d love to say that I’d make the time to do that myself but any kind of sync nonsense drives me insane/strikes ph34r into my heart. Plus, there were intermissions both time, with some repetition of the last cue before intermission at the start of the second half of Star Wars, and a cut-down concert-suite rendition of the Imperial March at the start of the second half of Empire &c. So, as a practical matter, unless some of the older hands here talk me into it, I’m probably not going to take the time to attempt this. But I bet one of you fine people would like to, or at least have advice. Please chime in below! Let’s make this happen!

Upd01
So natch I didn’t search the forums first or I would have found that indeed there was already a thread on this and that DFNYC attended all four screenings and made a presumably much much recording. It looks like we definitely attended different screenings for Star Wars, may have attended different screenings for ESB.
In any case, alexp120 and I are officially in business. Watch this space…

Post
#887397
Topic
Episode VII: The Force Awakens - Discussion * <strong>SPOILER THREAD</strong> *
Time

‘The Jedi Steps and Finale’ might also be the first time since the original movies that the end credits track isn’t just an excuse for dumping in the extended concert suite versions of the themes without doing something interesting or original with them, so that’s much appreciated too.

Post
#887392
Topic
Episode VII: The Force Awakens - Discussion * <strong>SPOILER THREAD</strong> *
Time

DominicCobb said:

towne32 said:

hydrospanner said:

Was anyone else disappointed by the film’s score? None of the music really grabbed me like it did in the previous films.

I thought it was solid enough and better than the average movie score, certainly. The use of old themes was noticeable and appropriate. But nothing struck me as a new classic as was developed for SW77 (and, hell, even TPM and Clones had some incredible new pieces). On the other hand, I’m admittedly not someone who pays much attention to soundtracks. I only bothered to learn (many of) whose theme is whose in the SW films earlier this year.

It was hard to grasp on to the film’s score while watching it, but I chalk that mainly up to there being so much new (music and other stuff) that it was a lot to take in.

I’ve since listened to the soundtrack in its entirety a couple times, and it is fantastic. There’s nothing bombastic or “epic” like in the prequels, and nothing that’s immediately unforgettable, which is I think why people are mixed on the score so far, but I think once people start to orient themselves with it, everyone’ll appreciate it.

It’s really great and very swashbuckling, more so than even the original Star Wars score ever was (check out “Scherzo for X-Wings” if you want to hear the main theme as if it were in an Errol Flynn picture). I honestly wasn’t expecting that but it works very well and makes the film a lot of fun.

One thing that I’m mixed on was the fact that they used “Burning Homestead” when Rey grabs the lightsaber. Not sure if I’m okay with it because why did they feel the need to use a 38 year old piece instead of a new one and because I recognized it immediately and found it a little distracting. On the other hand, it was epic as f and made me pretty emotional, honestly. So I probably don’t mind it.

I concur with all of this, now that I’ve been listening to the CD. The new themes weren’t terribly memorable - even Attack of the Clones had ‘Across the Stars’ - which was very disappointing in the theater, but they’re still fairly enjoyable when given a listen later (of course I preordered the soundtrack). Some things were out of place - like the needless retreads of old themes and cues in places that don’t make sense, which is something they had Williams do in Revenge of the Sith, too (with the music from Duel with the Dark Lord). This is usually a bad idea even if what’s happening has a direct parallel - goes beyond just ‘rhyming’ as GL would put it. (Using part of the Binary Sunset rendition of the Force Theme in the finale was an acceptable instance of this though.) Anyway, overall - the swashbuckling nature of the thing is pretty great. I especially liked ‘March of the Resistance’ and the last three tracks, as one unit. As Rey’s character becomes more compelling, her theme, which sounds like it came out of the Great Hall music for Harry Potter, may yet come into its own as well.

Post
#887383
Topic
Episode VII: The Force Awakens - Discussion * <strong>SPOILER THREAD</strong> *
Time

Harmy said:

This is really getting annoying now 😦 Why does that keep happening?

If you’re talking about the Markdown demo getting posted and reposted, then yeah, I have no clue why Jay hasn’t fixed this yet, as he’s definitely aware of the bug. I guess it’s more complex than just having a regex check on submission…?

If you’re talking about your smiley not rendering properly in Firefox 43,

No smiley

well, I think that’s a new one, heh.

Post
#887188
Topic
Episode VII: The Force Awakens - Discussion * <strong>SPOILER THREAD</strong> *
Time

So, I was discussing this with my gf yesterday, and I think she came up with a pithy one-liner that really captures everything I was trying to express - Lucas never understood what made his original movies great, but that’s ALL that Abrams knows.

Aside from that, I was disappointed that there was not one discernible theme that was brand spankin’ new and captured me in an awesome way. This is a first for a Star Wars movie. And if you would have asked me yesterday, I would have told you that even if the movie was crappy, at least the music would be totally awesome. Real shocker.

Post
#886864
Topic
Puggo GRANDE - 16mm restoration (Released)
Time

With Puggo Strikes Back, at least, I had ended up having to manually fix the subs (even the ones labeled 16mm) using SubtitleEdit, even after merging all the vobs and removing the trailer at the beginning of it. That said - it’s really amazing how much better the Project Threepio subs are than the standard ones. Much thanks to CatBus and Puggo for making this experience possible!

Post
#877899
Topic
Puggo GRANDE - 16mm restoration (Released)
Time

So, there is some weirdness with the mastering of Puggo Grande and Puggo Strikes Back that I just noticed. Here’s what MediaInfo gives back for color information:

MediaInfo

Color primaries : BT.601 PAL
Transfer characteristics : BT.470 System B, BT.470 System G
Matrix coefficients : FCC 73.682

Kind of weird for an NTSC DVD to have PAL primaries and transfer characteristics and an old-ish NTSC color matrix, isn’t it?

Post
#789972
Topic
More OUT Rerelease Rumors from John Landis!
Time

CatBus said:

darklordoftech said:

What would Disney have to gain from making more changes?

A 4K version of Star Wars, for one.  For >2K, they absolutely must go back to film elements, which means pre-2004.  Another good reason would be maintaining contractual obligations (i.e. with Reliance Media) that were agreed to prior to the Lucasfilm purchase.  They may try to make the result look like the 2011SE, or the 2004SE, but if they do, it will inevitably be somewhat different and therefore "more changes".  Heck, if they decide to actually go the OOT route, they may decide to port over some of the more subtle recomps from the SE, and that too would be yet another special edition.  There are SO many ways this can go wrong without someone at the helm who actually loves the films deeply.

In short, the work must continue. Frankly I don't think there's anybody this can be entrusted to who isn't already here.

Post
#763304
Topic
Star Wars Digital HD Release .... April 10th
Time

ThiefCobbler4ever said:

Throwing my hat into the ring here; I'm upset that I, II, III, V, and VI are missing the Fox logo and fanfare as much as you are.

Sure those films are solely Lucasfilm and they made them and Fox simply distributed them, but to me, they're still Fox films.

I suggest we contact Disney tomorrow and ask them nicely to right this wrong.

Ah, this makes sense. Lends credence to the idea that Fox retained some rights related to 1977 Star Wars.

Post
#762998
Topic
Star Wars Digital HD Release .... April 10th
Time

bilditup1 said:

One interesting point: I'm seeing the movies on Vudu, and they are all available under Disney Movies Anywhere except ANH. I guess Fox retained distribution rights or at least digital distribution rights in the purported deal that was made in the late 90s to transfer the copyright to Lucasfilm?

 ...really, nobody cares about this? It's the most fascinating part!